Eric laughed. “That’s more like it. Now we have our cover story.”
“Yes but what exactly are we covering up?” she asked, pulling her knees to her chest, shivering. “that you’re not actually a bad guy?”
“Exactly,” Eric said, handing her her dress and standing up. “cant have that getting out.”
They walked casually back toward town, talking sporadically.
At her car, Eric grabbed her and turned them around so his back was against the car and she was facing him. His hands were on her waist but her held her a foot away from his body for a moment. “You’re a really pleasant surprise Annabelle Goode.”
Anna smiled, feeling her face redden. “Right back at you, Eric O’reilly.”
He pulled her closer, kissed her cheek, and told her he would see her around.
Anna let herself into her quiet house and went straight to her bed, chilled to the bone from the long stint in the water. She cuddled into two comforters, running the night over and over through her head. She felt satisfied. Happy almost. It was a foreign feeling she hadn’t truly felt since childhood. But it was the happiness of a grown woman. A woman who had a really, really sexy man interested in her. And the confidence she drew from that. She fell into a dreamless sleep less than twenty minutes later, listening to the owl hoot somewhere off in the distance. On Sam’s farm, she recalled.
Ten
There was no way she could be seeing what she was seeing. Anna had scrambled out of bed later than she would have liked, feeling groggy. She walked outside still wearing the black dress from the night before to look around her plots to see what work she would need to do that day.
She rubbed her sleep-foggy eyes and looked again. The entire garden in front of her had been destroyed, every last plant ripped out of the ground.
Then she realized with an overwhelming sick feeling rise in her belly. The destroyed crop in front of her was the dill she was supposed to sell to Hank in just a few weeks.
And it was all gone. Along with the money she would have gotten for it. Money she was going to desperately need once her account dwindled down to nothing.
What could have happened? Some random pest? A squirrel or rabbit? Then it hit her. The memory flooded back to her second day at the house, coming out to check the land and finding that mischievous little goat making a meal from her seedlings.
She took off to Sam’s property at a dead run, her tight dress inching up on her thighs. The landscape flew past her unnoticed as she realized that without the money from Hank’s sale, she wouldn’t ever be able to keep her head above water through the winter. She would have to sell Mam’s farm. She’d have to move back with Viv.
Sam’s barns came into view as her legs started to hurt and feel wobbly. She had never been much of a runner. She could make out Sam in the distance, carrying a sack of something over his shoulder. A dog started barking manically and Sam looked up.
“Anna,” he called, dropping the sack. “What’s wrong?” he asked as she skidded to a stop in front of him.
She fought for breath for a moment, her chest aching from exertion she was unaccustomed to. The longer she took to answer, the more concern colored Sam’s face.
“You,” she accused, gasping. “My dill.”
“Your dill,” Sam asked, his brows drawn together. “Anna take a deep breath. What is going on?”
Anna obliged. “Your goat must have gotten into my garden again. He destroyed it!” Anger hit her hard and fast, making her face flush and her muscles all over tense up.
“Honey, I don’t think so. I patched up all the fences between our property a few weeks ago. I don’t see how one could have gotten in.”
“Well they did,” she shouted, feeling the frustration make her eyes begin to tear.
“Okay. Okay,” Sam held up his hands, palms out. “show me.”
Anna immediately started to stalk off toward her property line. Sam’s big hand came down on her shoulder. “We’ll take my truck. It will be faster.”
They drove in silence, Anna a seething pile of nerves and Sam sending off concern so thick he could choke on it. What was he going to do if what she said was true? For a farmer, crops are livelihood. And dill was going to be her biggest order. How could he ever make it up to her? Even if he paid her, it wouldn’t be the same. She would never get that feeling of satisfaction of starting something from scratch and making it successful.
She would never forgive him.
Sam knelt down next to the bed, somber and frustratingly calm. “Anna I’m sorry but goats didn’t do this. Actually I don’t think any animal did,” he stood up and turned to face her. “Nothing has been chewed, let alone eaten. Plus animals wouldn’t generally go for dill. It’s pungent. Come here,” he said, kneeling again and grabbing a handful of ruined plants. “It all looks like it has been pulled up. Like weeds.”
“Are you saying a person did this?”
Sam sighed. “I think so.”
“But… but…” Anna sputtered. “Who would do this? Who could possibly hate me this much? I just moved here!” Her anger drained suddenly, leaving only the growing dread she was feeling. “Now I cant sell this to Hank for his pickles. And I wont make any money. And I’ll have to sell this farm just when I was starting to like it here. And…” she broke off on a sob, bowing her head as the tears fell hot and rapid.
“Oh, honey,” Sam said, sitting down on the ground and pulling her into his lap. He tucked her head under his chin and wrapped his arms around her. She sobbed loudly, her body jerking violently as the tears rained down onto Sam’s chest soaking through his t-shirt.
“It’s going to be alright Anna. We’ll figure this out. I promise. You’re not going to lose the farm. I wont let that happen. Shh,” he whispered against her temple. “Shh.”
After a few minutes, her throat sore from sobbing, she continued to cry silently for a long while before she finally ran out of tears and started sniffling pathetically.
“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her eyes and feeling embarrassed.
“For what?” Sam asked, a hand rubber her back. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
Anna pulled away, keeping her head down as she scrubbed her face dry with her palms. “I cried all over you.”
“I’ll dry,” he smiled.
“And I shouldn’t have accused you, or your goats, like that.”
“You were shocked and upset. And I mean it did happen before. It wasn’t a crazy leap to make. Don’t apologize.”
Anna took a few deep breaths. “What am I going to do Sam?” she asked, more to herself than anything.
He was silent for a moment. “Well I’m no expert, but could you possibly use this still? Dry it and sell it as like a container cooking spice?” he asked, sheepishly.
But then she realized… she could do that. She probably wouldn’t make the kind of money she would have gotten from Hank all at once but it wasn’t a total loss. It could still bring in some money.
“You’re a genius,” she said, smiling weakly. She knelt forward, grabbing a few handfuls of dill. “So do you know anything about drying herbs?”
Sam shrugged, reaching for some plants as well. “It’s not complicated.”
He stayed despite her insistence that he should go home and take care of his business. They took all the plants over to the porch, cutting the roots off and collecting them into bunches, and tying strings around the ends.
“So where should I hang these?” she wondered out-loud, but to herself.
Sam glanced up at her. “Somewhere warm and dry.”
Anna shrugged. “Anywhere in the house then. Mam apparently had some kind of aversion to air conditioning.”
Sam enjoyed working next to her. She was fast and efficient and seemed happy to be kept busy.
And she was managing to work in that incredibly tight, low-cut, short dress that could not have been comfortable. She looked breathtaking. Even though he knew she had put that dress on to go out with Eric. You couldn�
��t spit in Stars Landing without everyone knowing about it and telling your mother.
She had stalked down the main street in stiletto heels and a tight black dress, right into Eric’s shop. From there they had gotten coffee at Liam’s bookstore. Then disappeared. And weren’t seen again until hours later... walking out of the woods.
Sam’s stomach clenched considering what they could have been doing in the woods at night for hours.
But it wasn’t his business, he reminded himself. Even if his own behavior toward her had probably, like Maude warned, sent her right into Eric’s arms.
Anna growled, throwing the bunch of dill she was trying to tie together. “I cant do this. I need coffee,” she said, standing carefully and walking inside.
Sam tied his bunch and then fixed hers before following her in. The coffee pot was dripping and the kitchen smelled strong and rich. Anna was searching the cabinet above her head for mugs, her dress inching up to almost reveal her behind. Sam shook his head, his mind trying to imagine what it would be like to push her up against the cabinet and take her from behind.
He cleared his throat awkwardly. She glanced over her shoulder, expecting him to say something. “Nice dress,” he said and watched as she stepped down off her tippy toes and pulled the hemline down.
“Thanks,” Anna said, feeling strange. Guilty, she realized. She felt guilty. Like she shouldn’t be in front of him wearing the dress she had worn for Eric. Which was ridiculous. Sam didn’t want her. Case closed. She was moving on from that. “I’m… I’m going to go change into something more appropriate,” she said, quickly disappearing down the hall and rummaging around for clothes.
“I like the paint job,” Sam called to her, walking into the living room, scooping fat Sylvester off the floor.
“Yeah I painted that when I was bombed,” she admitted casually.
“Pretty good work for beer goggles,” Sam smiled to himself. He couldn’t picture her drunk.
“Gin,” she clarified, slipping out of the dress and taking her first real breath in almost twenty-four hours. “Hey Sam,” she called as the silence dragged on.
“Yeah?”
“How many men named John do you think there are in Stars Landing?” she asked, looking at the note on Mam’s wall.
Sam looked toward the bedroom door, trying to not think about her naked behind it. “A dozen. More or less. It’s a common name. Why?”
Anna walked down the hall in a pair of tight gray yoga pants and black tank-top. “Apparently Mam had an… admirer at some point named John. I was just seeing if I could piece together who it was and what happened between them. His letters are the only really personal things I found around her so far.”
Sam’s brows drew together. No one had ever known Mam to date. In fact half of the town just thought she was a spinster and the other half thought she was a lesbian. “I never knew her to date. But she was a fiercely private woman. Sociable, but kept her own business to herself mostly.”
Anna nodded, her mother had told her as much. “I don’t know why I want to know so badly,” she admitted, walking toward the kitchen to pour the coffee. “I feel like… she just gave me this really awesome opportunity. Out of nowhere. I really didn’t even know her. I feel like I owe it to her to try to learn about her life. I dunno. It’s stupid.”
“It’s not stupid,” Sam said, taking a sip of his coffee. “I wish I could help more. We talked a lot but about our businesses and the town. Nothing personal. She had this biting tongue, though,” Sam recalled, smiling. “She was really quick-witted and sense of humor ran toward sarcastic. And you didn’t want to get on the opposite side of an argument with that woman. You’d leave feeling bloody and bruised.”
Anna laughed, “Do you think, do you think she would have liked me?” she asked, embarrassed that she wanted to know.
Sam cocked his head to the side, looking at her. “I cant imagine anyone not liking you,” he said and watched as she turned her head away in embarrassment. “She would have loved you, Anna.”
Anna smiled weakly, putting her mug on the counter and suggesting they start stringing up the dill in the living room.
Handing a bunch to Sam who was hanging them from a strip of string he had hung just below the ceiling, she asked, “So do you think there’s like any teens in this town or anything who would have done this?”
Sam thought for a minute, trying the dill upside down. “I don’t think so. I mean most of us grew up with farming in our families and we would never do that to someone. Destroyed crops meant a devastating blow to the family and the town. But I guess it’s possible. There’s always a bad seed or two. You could go to the sheriff,” Sam suggested.
Anna shrugged. “There’s nothing for them to go on. I would just be wasting his time. I just hope I can figure out a back-up plan. I need to sell some of this stuff eventually if I want to stay here.”
Eleven
He wasn’t about to let her lose her farm. It was the single thought he obsessed about for two days after he helped her start drying her dill. He would find some way to help her.
Then as he was packing his truck with coolers, he realized he had some pull in many different little food stores across the state. His name would go a long way in securing her a few new vendors for her goods.
After finishing packing up his truck, he drove over to Mam’s farm, pounding on the door. A few moments later, Anna came to the door in a pair of green khakis and a tan tank top. Beads of sweat were spread across her chest above the bodice.
“What’s up Sam?” she asked, a little out of breath.
Sam pulled open the door, “Go grab your purse and a notebook.”
Anna’s eyebrows drew together. “Might I ask why?” she asked, her lips turning up into a confused smile.
“We are going to go get you some stores,” he said “but we have to get going now or we wont make all our stops today.”
“You’re serious?” she asked, feeling hope rise up in her chest. At his nod, she looked down at herself. “Oh, I have to change into something more professional,” she said, turning quickly.
Sam reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her. “Anna, we’re farmers. This is how we are supposed to look,” he said, gesturing toward his own worn blue jeans and blue t-shirt.
Anna ran to grab a pen, notebook and a small purse and met Sam outside. He went over to the passenger side of his truck and pulled the door open. Anna looked up at the hand grip to help pull her into the obnoxiously high pick-up truck. There was no way she could even reach the darn thing. Sam looked down at her and laughed before grabbing her by the hips and hauling her up to the seat himself.
They drove off a few seconds later. Anna leaned forward toward the vents and sighed as the cool air conditioning hit her skin. “I forgot how nice air conditioning is,” she admitted when she noticed Sam watching her. She glanced over her shoulder into the cab. “So what is all that?” she asked, wishing Sam had put the radio on.
“Brie,” Sam said. “Fresh organic aged cheese is at a premium in all the small boutique shops and restaurants.”
“I’ve never had brie,” Anna said, wrinkling her nose a little at the thought.
Sam laughed at her face, a big booming sound in the enclosed truck. “It’s actually pretty good. Goat’s cheese is softer than milk cheese. And there’s a definite distinct taste, but it isn’t as odd as you might be imagining.”
They talked casually about goat farming for a long time, Anna finding herself genuinely interested. They arrived at the first shop about half an hour later, Sam hopping into the bed of the truck and hauling one of the coolers down with him.
Unfortunately the owner was off for the day and Anna couldn’t make a sale.
The next stop was almost forty-five minutes from the first shop. When Anna commented on it being a long way to travel, Sam shrugged. “This restaurant was the first one to give me a chance when I first got started. The chef wants to see me personally at the drop offs.”
The restaurant was a small gray stucco, upscale building hidden slightly behind perfectly manicured ornamental trees. Sam parked toward the back and unloaded two coolers. Anna struggled to help him with one before he shook her head with his trademark lopsided grin and pulled it behind himself.
He rapped on the kitchen door. A face appeared in the small window and the door clicked open.
“He’s in a mood,” the young, neat man in a white chef’s jacket informed them.
“He always is,” Sam smiled, following him inside, dropping the coolers by the door.
Anna had never been back of house anywhere but her coffee shop. There was movement everywhere, people in white chef jackets, others in black and white stripes, and a bunch of flustered people in all black with aprons and name tags. Servers.
Sam grabbed her hand, unexpectedly and she almost pulled away from shock. But he held it tighter, linking his fingers between hers. “We have to follow that shouting,” he warned her and she nodded.
“Excuse me, chef,” the young man who answered the door called timidly to the back of a heavyset man in a white jacket. He was yelling at one of the men in stripes about the temperature of the soup. “Excuse me chef,” he repeated, louder.
“What?” the man snapped, waving a hand at the poor soup guy. “what do you want?” he said, turning. He had a chubby, clean-shaven face with almost black eyes and a ruddy complexion. “Sam,” he said, his face breaking out into a charming smile. “Idiot,” he said to the young chef, slapping him across the back of the neck. “you should have said Sam was here!”
Anna felt her spine straighten, always wanting to stand up for the poor underdog because they couldn’t stand up for themselves. “I believe that is what he was trying to do, chef,” she said and felt like squirming when the man’s dark eyes fell on her.
“Yes well he should have done so louder,” he said with a wink. He turned back to Sam, grabbing him in a huge bear hug and kissing him on the side of the head.
Sam’s hand slid from hers and she felt smaller and uncomfortable without it there unconsciously supporting her. The chef said something in Sam’s ear and Sam looked back at her and said no.
What The Heart Wants Page 9
